British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch’s former co-defendant in a US fraud trial has died after being hit by a car just days before a yacht carrying the now-missing tycoon sank off the coast of Sicily.

Stephen Chamberlain, 52, a former VP of finance at Lynch’s former company Autonomy, was hit by the car while out running on Saturday, his lawyer Gary Lincenberg told CNN Monday.

The incident took place just two days before the British investor Lynch, 59, went missing along with five others after a tornado sank the luxury yacht carrying them off the coast of Sicily in the early hours of Monday.

Both Lynch and Chamberlain were acquitted of fraud by a court in San Francisco in June, following charges related to the sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP) for $11 billion in 2011.

Prosecutors had alleged the pair had schemed to inflate Autonomy’s revenue before selling to HP.

Chamberlain had faced the same 15 charges – one count of conspiracy and 14 counts of wire fraud – as Lynch.

“He was a courageous man with unparalleled integrity. We deeply miss him. Steve fought successfully to clear his good name at trial earlier this year, and his good name now lives on through his wonderful family,” Lincenberg said.

Earlier on Monday, Cambridgeshire Police had appealed to witnesses of a collision between a man and a car in Stretham, Cambridgeshire.

The police statement did not name Chamberlain but said that a man in his 50s from Longstaton had been struck by a car Saturday morning and was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

The driver of the car, a 49-year-old woman, was assisting police with enquiries, according to the police service.

Source: CNN